


Right Place, Wrong Time

by Starjargon



Series: Tangled Web of Beauty [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: AU, Author Gratification, F/M, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Gen, Manhattan had no graves, Series Order- What Series Order?, This is why River should fly her, Time Babies, Timey Wimey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-09
Updated: 2014-04-22
Packaged: 2017-12-31 22:20:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1037030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starjargon/pseuds/Starjargon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Ponds get a few surprise visitors. Only, it wasn't meant to be a surprise. Oops.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Right Place, Wrong Time

**Author's Note:**

> Here is a series I've been working on for quite some time called the Tangled Web of Beauty. Sure- that's a nice name, and fitting. Some stories in this series are actual story-archs and have a beginning, middle, and a specific end goal. This is not one of them. 
> 
> This is the first in this series simply because it struck the right tone for a beginning. Each "episode" in this story has multiple chapters, but the story itself is plotless, fluffy, and ongoing (as are stories #2 and #7- which each deal with fluff at different stages of the characters lives, and therefore need very little knowledge of the other parts of the series.) Also, as with the other fluffy stories, prompts and ideas are always encouraged and welcome.
> 
> Due to the Timey Wimey nature of the Doctor and the Pond's life- the order of the series doesn't necessarily matter. Also, very AU- in which Manhattan shall now be known as "that place the Doctor and Ponds went before they went to the pub and Amy and River schooled the boys at video games." There will be so much fluff, crazy random happenstances, and guest appearances in this story- so be prepared, and enjoy the ride, because I have so far. Let me know what you think!

Amy and Rory were visiting River's new residence- the Doctor had bought her one in several different centuries and she rotated regularly, having spent one life in Leadworth and much of this one in prison, she wasn't one for being tied down to one specific location.

They were surprised, however, when the TARDIS parked in the middle of the living room- River was preparing a special meal for them in the kitchen a few doors down in the spacious- well, they still called it a house. Out came the Doctor in the middle of some kind of argument with a young barely- teenage girl.

"I don't care if they were defeated, they were still one of the greatest innovators of their planet- ever!"

"Says the man who laughs at history books."

"And now you see why! They always manage to rewrite what happened based on assumptions and ridiculous accusations."

"You're being so unreasonable!"

"Ah- this is a rubbish argument- River! Come help me instill some logic into-"

He halted mid- sentence when he saw the young couple eyeing their interaction with amusement. He immediately gulped and pointed clumsily at Amy.

"Hel- Hello Ponds. You're so… young. Well, this was fun. May have gotten things a bit wrong with the steering. Got to go. See you in a few… years."

"Doctor," said Amy hesitantly, taking in her Raggedy Man's look of panic.

"Bella, get back in the TARDIS," he kept staring at his Ponds- so very young.

"Why-" The young redhead did not seem keen on doing as he said.

"Just do it. Don't argue." He used his "I'm in charge, no questions" voice.

"But-" He had turned around and was physically trying to pull her back into his box.

"BELLA TARDIS NOW!" he had commanded armies but was still having the most difficult time getting a single young girl to obey him.

"Well, hello Sweetie," said River delightedly, bringing out a tray of refreshments for her parents. "I didn't know you were stopping by."

The Doctor turned slightly toward her; Rory noted how he still had his arm blocking the girl, no longer seeming to be a method of pushing but now an unconscious gesture of protection. Amy kept his face in her sights, noting the stress, worry, and fear in his eyes as they remained fixed on the girl in front of him.

He turned his head slightly backwards, "Yes, well, it was more of an unscheduled, last minute stop. But we can't stay- have somewhere we have to be now. Don't we, Mia?" He was still trying to catch the girl's eye as she remained oblivious to the situation, still trying to move forward even as his firm grip held her back. Amy noticed his eyes were silently pleading as he tried in vain to move the girl.

"Wait- I want to ask-"

"Ah. So are you more afraid of your new companion here meeting me or me meeting her? And honestly, Doctor. Has it been so long since you've travelled with my parents that you forgot your manners?" She put the tray down in front of Rory, who was more intent on the Doctor's interaction with Bella or Mia or whatever she was called, than on the drinks and sweets his daughter had just placed in front of him.

"Doctor River Song," she said, cordially holding out her hand to the girl, whose whole being immediately froze, and the Doctor closed his eyes tightly, face falling completely and looking so utterly destroyed even Rory was tempted to hug him.

"I- I'm…" The girl had trouble forming sentences.

"River, this is Mia- Jack's niece. Or have you met Jack yet? Yes, of course you have- we found this house with him. Well, anyway, we really should be off, I promised him we wouldn't be away too long this time." The Doctor continued his struggle against the now numb girl.

"What, that's it? Why did you come here if you were just going to leave, Doctor? Or are you trying to run away from my parents before they ask to come along too?" asked his very confused wife, dropping her hand as the girl continued to ignore it.

"NO! Not at all. I- just came to borrow the gemstone of Rubicainan, River. Do you still have it?" he blurted out the first thing that came to mind that would get her to leave the room.

"Yes," she said, seeing through his lie but not pushing it. "I believe it's in one of the boxes in the storage somewhere. I'll go get it. Should only take a sec." She turned, slightly confused as she went to retrieve the mostly- useless gem.

Rory and Amy stood up and walked to the pair, who still hadn't moved. The Doctor's eyes bored into the girl's face, as her moment of immobility passed and her face crumbled.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his eyes downcast for the briefest of seconds. "Obviously we got the time wrong. Are- are you ok?"

She looked at him then, her eyes filled with tears.

"She- she didn't even know me."

"No, she wouldn't."

"She just looked right through me, as though I were some stranger, just another one of your… _companions,_ " she spit the last word out through tears that were threatening to overtake her.

"She doesn't know yet, Bells. You don't exist." He wanted more than anything in the worlds to fix this.

She turned and grabbed him by the lapels of his dark coat, burying her face in his chest as he wrapped his arms tightly around her, rocking her gently back and forth.

"Oh, Daddy." Amy and Rory gaped at the word. "How do you do this?! Is this what you go through when you meet in the wrong order?! I hate it! It's wrong! Fix it, Daddy. Please."

Rory and Amy's hearts broke as they watched the Doctor crumble as well, helpless to undo the last few minutes, only able to hold his little girl as the sobs overtook her whole body.

"Shh. It's okay. It'll be ok. We'll go anywhere you want. Just name it. Anywhen at all. You'll be ok, love."

She looked up at him, her tears tearing his hearts apart, then she leaned her head on his chest once more and finally took in her grandparents, who were standing there in shock and pain as they both desired to run and comfort her.

"You're so young. You don't know me either, do you?"

Amy looked almost ashamed as she bowed her head, the simple gesture answer enough.

"I'm so sorry."

She buried her face in the Doctor's shirt once more, barely getting out, "I want to go see Mama. A mama who knows me. And a Gran and Granddad Rory who don't look at me like I'm impossible. I want to go, Daddy. Let's just get out of here. Please. I want this to just be a bad dream."

"Okay. Shh. Okay. I just need you to hold it together for a few more minutes. Can you do that for me, love? Wait in the TARDIS and I'll be right there. Then we'll go. It'll be ok."

"Promise?" She was no longer the young adult she had played at when they first arrived, now she was the fragile child she was still learning to leave behind.

"I promise, baby. We'll go. Just wait a few more minutes."

When she turned and dejectedly walked slowly back into the TARDIS, the Doctor closed his eyes once more, letting out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Then he turned to his stunned in- laws, taking them in and then looking anywhere but at them.

"You knew. All this time. Of course you did. Obvious, really," he muttered to himself.

"Doctor- what just happened?"

"Well, obviously Rory, my daughter's hearts just broke because her mother doesn't even know she exists!" He took out his anger and frustration on the Roman. "We promised ourselves this would never happen- took so many precautions. And I mucked it up again! Daft old man. And now I somehow managed to hurt the one person in the universe I hadn't screwed up before! I really don't deserve her." He went on with his private berating.

Amy went up to him then, throwing her arms around him and stopping his guilt- driven pity party.

"She's beautiful."

He smiled, a single huff of a laugh coursing through his body. She was his Bella. Of course she was beautiful.

"And she's a Pond. She'll be ok. We always are, in the end."

"Williams," declared an already- defeated Rory.

"Well as far as names go, she's technically a Song, but that's all titles and semantics and gobbledygook like that," said the Doctor, life returning to his eyes as he focused on the trivial and on the wonder that was his child.

"So," said Amy, a mischievous light in her eyes, "Gran?"

"Just don't tell me or River when you meet her again."

"So, we know a spoiler then? That _neither_ of you know?"

"Well, _I_ know about it."

"No, not about her- you didn't know that _we_ know about her! That means, we will know more than you!"

"Well, I guess one could argue-"

He could already see the delight his little Amelia Pond was taking in the knowledge of the future. It was enough to stutter one of his heartbeats.


	2. Something Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ponds already feel responsible for the mysterious new girl.

They heard River coming back from retrieving the stone, and Rory leapt into action.

"Doctor, she said she wanted to see us- that that would make her better." He had to admit, this fact made the future grandfather quite proud.

"Well, you two spoil her, never tell her no even when that should be the answer." The Time Lord needed to pout out his feelings.

"Take her to us and tell us where you came from. Let us do everything we can to make up for today. Remind us about it, and we'll make sure you don't have to see those tears anymore."

The Doctor looked up at Rory, a faint smile of gratitude touching his lips. He looked back to the TARDIS where his weeping daughter had retreated, then looked back at the two people who always managed to make her feel better, even when he and River couldn't.

"Yeah," reiterated Amy, looking toward the ship where her future granddaughter had disappeared. "I've known her all of thirty seconds and already hate those tears." She ached for the girl, and she felt the same sadness as when she first learned about River and the Doctor's timelines- the anguish of slowly being forgotten by someone they loved.

"Okay," he said, nodding, hearts lifting as a plan to help his daughter was set in motion. "Okay. Just please- remember how lost she looked. I hate seeing her like that. Promise me you'll do everything you can to stop this horrible feeling."

He quickly pasted on a smile just as his wife re- entered the room.

"Well then, Sweetie, here you- where did Mia go, my love?" she asked, looking around for the young girl. Amy and Rory both held back winces, now aware of "Mia's" true relationship with River, and once more tasting the pain of spoilers.

"Oh, she was feeling homesick- went to lie down," the Doctor said dismissively, hoping the conversation wouldn't continue much longer.

"Homesick? Has she not travelled with you before?" River was incredulous that the Doctor would take on a companion who would always be looking back. However, she reflected, the girl _was_ rather young. Probably missed her parents, as she knew children tended to do, even if they did have the universe at their fingertips.

"Says the woman who always wants to get back to her cell at the end of our adventures," the Doctor responded lightly, tossing the jewel from hand to hand before reaching out and bopping River on the nose.

" _Need_ to, my love. You know I'd stay with you if I could. But, fair point. So, Jack has a niece? Is she his brother's daughter then?" Jack never talked about his family, but she knew long ago he had had one. Although, with as many times as he'd been married now, she could be the daughter of a relative of one of his wives for all she knew.

"Spoilers, River. Listen, thank you for this." He held up the gem. "And- I'll be seeing you- very, very soon." Thick, thickety thick Doctor, he remembered this day at last! Oh, he really needed to be going, not in the least because he had a crying, miserable Bella in his TARDIS- a phenomenon which had no place in the universe.

"Okay. Whatever you say, my love," said River, slightly more placated at his quick exit now that she knew the girl needed to get back home. There was something about this Mia, something important- though River couldn't quite figure it out. She travelled with the Doctor so casually, yet wanted to go home so suddenly, and he wasn't even upset about taking her. She knew there was something she was missing, something the Doctor was purposely keeping from her. Apparently, she would have to wait to find out what.


	3. Wrong Time For This Sort of Thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just when she thought the Doctor couldn't surprise her further, he up and comes to her with this...

Right after the TARDIS faded into the vortex and River huffed her confusion before turning to converse with her parents, they all heard the sound of the brakes once more, as just moments later the TARDIS reappeared in her home. River shook her head fondly at her husband's forgetfulness, folding her arms across her chest and cocked one hip as she prepared to teasingly scold him. Her posture matched Amy's, their intentions identical, and taunts waited at the tip of her tongue, when the doors opened and the Doctor ran out frantically. Holding a baby.

That silenced River, which was just as well because the combination of the child's screams and the Doctor's panicked look told her that any remark she could have made would only serve to further aggravate the situation.

"Doctor-" she started, a cold fear stirring in her stomach, "why did you bring me a baby?"

"She won't stop crying!" yelled a very distressed Time Lord.

"Where did she come from?" asked a suddenly upset River, trying to determine the best way to turn off the infant's shrieks. She began searching the child in the Doctor's arms as though there were a switch or a lever that would magically shut off the noise and pain.

"Questions later- right now, screaming baby!" reminded her husband.

"Well, what am I supposed to do?!" River demanded, still unable to see any source of distress on the child.

"You're a woman!" unreasoned the Doctor, "Shouldn't you know?!"

He was met by twin glares and closed expressions from two Pond women.

Rory, who was tired of hearing what he believed was probably his granddaughter's howling, lifted her out of the Doctor's hands and gently began rocking her, lifting her up to check if she needed changing, humming in a soothing manner. He felt her stomach to see if there were pent up gases in her, then reached up, checking her forehead for any fever, feeling around inside her mouth, when the child's cries began to quiet slowly as she started sucking on his finger. Rory continued to rock her as he began to rub her gums, her cries finally quieting until they died down completely.

"Oh yes, she likes that," the Doctor beamed at Rory proudly, who had fixed everything in his eyes.

"Doctor, if you can speak baby, why didn't you know what she wanted?" Amy asked, still sceptical about her friend's ability.

"She just kept shouting 'make it stop,' but she wouldn't tell me what," the Doctor defended himself.

"So, husband," said River through gritted teeth, "why would you bring me a baby? Please tell me you didn't steal it, because we've had this talk- we do not take children with us as companions on our dangerous, life- threatening adventures. I know you thought it would be a good idea with my mum, but had you not been late she probably would have grown up on jelly babies and custard, and would have never known the meaning of the words bedtime or responsibility."

"Oi! I've had children before, River! I was a brilliant dad! It's just been a few centuries."

"So you did steal her."

" _No,_ " he sighed exasperatedly, "I didn't steal her. I'm just supposed to watch her for a little while for a friend of mine. How was I supposed to know she was growing teeth?"

"And this friend actually trusted you alone with their child?"

"We were doing fine before the screaming."

"Of course. And how long was that, my love?"

"Plenty of time. Loads of it. Bunches of time with no screaming and everything going smoothly."

"So, under an hour then?" deadpanned Amy.

"Do you always have to be so technical?"

"Well, now that we've established we're both completely rubbish with children, take my father along and put her back where you got her."

Rory looked up at this, wondering if he got a say in his leaving. Then he looked down at the now- content baby girl in his arms and decided probably not.

"I can't do that, River! I'm proving myself! See, I can take care of her all by myself... Mostly. Though, now that I think on it, I probably should've taken her to… well. You were the first person I thought of- figured you could fix this mess. No, no, little baby! I wasn't calling you a mess. I meant the whole teeth are sprouting in your mouth and hurting you bit. Oh, well. Rory, if I could just borrow your finger for a little while longer, I think I have something cold in the TARDIS. We'll just pop that in her mouth and then I can go about proving my competence."

"Doctor- who let you have a baby by yourself?" River still crossed her arms, smirking and slightly annoyed at the thought of some poor fool out there who didn't realize that though seemingly brilliant with children, the Doctor should never be responsible for one. He still seemed like a child himself at times.

"Well," he fumbled around for a decent explanation, "if you must know- Jack Harkness. He was meant to watch her for a little while, then I insisted I could do it. And here I am."

"Yes, dear. At my house with three other people where my father, who is not the supposed caretaker in question, is holding the child you suddenly brought us."

"It's a learning process, River! She's still safe! There have been no monsters the entire time I've had her, and this is our first time running all day."

"Where is her mother?! Or Jack? Does she know he passed her off on you?"

"Of course she does! I don't make it a habit to go… kidnapping people River! Haven't done that in at least 800 years, thank you very much!"

The baby made a cooing sound, gurgling wetly around Rory's now- soaked finger, waving her hands up and down.

"Yes!" cried the Doctor excitedly, his eyes refocused on the (smallest) love of his life. "I see you have a hand! Two of them, in fact. Yes, I do too!" he wiggled his fingers in front of her face, letting her swat at them with one hand as she held on to Rory's finger with the other. Rory hissed as she bit down particularly hard on his saturated digit, looking up at the Doctor, stopping him from showcasing his hands further.

"Right! Erm… Rory, if you'll just accompany us into the TARDIS, we'll take her to a friend of mine who's an expert on these situations!"

"Doctor!" called River, as Rory himself was cut off every time he tried to protest being shuffled away from his wife and daughter.

The Doctor turned to River, confused.

"Make sure you get my father back here. _Today_. And take that baby back where you found her! Honestly, Dear! The _idea_ of either one of us with children. Ridiculous!" she muttered, rolling her eyes, hands crossed over her chest.


End file.
